386 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. C. Webb, F.E.S., exhibited an old Microscope by Pritchard, 

 whicb he had purchased from a friend, in whose possession it had been 

 for forty years. Mr. Nelson said he had not seen one like it before, and 

 asked him to bring it down for exhibition. There was nothing about 

 it to indicate the date, but so far as he could judge it was made by 

 Pritchard prior to the date of his Engiscope which was brought out in 

 1832. Amongst other things it possessed an arrangement for protecting 

 the objective from injury ; the eye-piece was triple and gave very good 

 definition ; there was a fine adjustment, and the body could be removed 

 so as to use the instrument as a dissecting Microscope. The lenses were 

 not achromatic, but they were fairly good. Taken as a whole the instru- 

 ment was a fine specimen of mechanical skill, for it must be borne in 

 mind that machine tools were almost unknown at the time it was made. 



The thanks of the Meeting were voted to Mr. Webb for his interesting 

 exhibit. 



Mr. Ersser exhibited a reversible live-box which was intended to 

 facilitate observations on large living objects, such as spiders whilst 

 spinning their webs, 



The President thought this seemed likely to be very useful in the 

 examination of live insects of considerable size, which could not be put 

 into the ordinary live-boxes in common use. 



The thanks of the Meeting were, on the motion of the President, 

 voted to Mr. Ersser for this exhibit. 



Mr. T. Powell, in replying to an inquiry from the President, said 

 that he was exhibiting on a Microscope in the room one of his new 

 semi-apochromatic objectives of yW-in. focus and numerical aperture of 

 1 • 4. One feature of this series was that they were made of glass which 

 would stand any climate without deterioration, and they were also com- 

 paratively inexpensive, the price of the one on the table being 51. 



The President said they had no papers to be read that evening, but 

 they would find plenty of interest in the very splendid exhibition of pond 

 life, for which they were indebted to some of the Fellows of the Society 

 and to the Members of the Quekett Microscopical Club, to whom he was 

 sure all who were present would be glad to express their thanks. It was 

 a matter of no small trouble — not only to bring Microscopes there and 

 to arrange them, but also to collect and prepare these living objects, 

 especially so fine a series as they had in the room that night. The ex- 

 hibition of live objects from a pond took him back to the time when a 

 past President of their Societv, the late Mr. H. J. Slack, brought out his 

 book The Marvels of Pond Life, and now, after the lapse of forty-one 

 years, they could still turn with interest to the same pursuit, for there 

 was no subject which excited more general interest, either at their own 

 Society or at the Quekett Microscopical Club. He was reminded, also, of 

 a review of Mr. Slack's book by Dr. S. P. Woodward, in which he pointed 

 out how easy it was to visit the suburbs of London and to find in a pond 

 which in itself did not look at all attractive, living objects of the greatest 

 beauty. In those days one need not go very far away for this purpose — 

 to Copenhagen Fields, for instance, where the Cattle Market now stood, 



